Standard Guide for Selection of Kriging Methods in Geostatistical Site Investigations

1.1 This guide covers recommendations for selecting appropriate kriging methods based on study objectives, exploratory data analysis, and analysis of spatial variation.

1.2 This guide considers commonly used forms of kriging including ordinary kriging, simple kriging, lognormal kriging, universal kriging, and indicator kriging. Multivariate, space-time and other less-frequently used kriging methods are not discussed; however, this is not intended to reflect any judgement as to the validity of these methods.

1.3 This guide describes conditions for which kriging methods are not appropriate and for which geostatistical simulations approaches should be used.

1.4 This guide does not discuss non-geostatistical alternatives to kriging such as splines or inverse-distance techniques.

1.5 This guide does not discuss the basic principles of kriging. Introductions to geostatistics and kriging may be found in numerous texts including Refs (1), (2), and (3). A review of kriging methods is given in (4).

1.6 This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety and health practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use.